Tag Archives: blueprint selling out

I started working on Adventures in Counter-Culture 5 years ago. At the time I started working on it I was fed up with everything around me; television and its stereotypical and harmful images, commercial radio, the stagnation of the music (even in the hip-hop scene that I’m a part of), and society in general. To me, there had become too many rules, too much routine, too much recycling of ideas and concepts. So as far as I was concerned I didn’t want to be a part of of that anymore, even if it meant that I had to challenge even the things that I’m known best for as an artist.

That’s what counter-culture is.

So as I took on this task of trying to destroy everything I knew musically and socially, I immediately realized that there would be risk involved, but I made the journey primarily for me so I didn’t care. I had to do it for myself. Make the music that I wanted to make, become the person I wanted to be, free of expectations and rules, so that I would know that I’m not just another artist playing it safe like everybody else, making the same boring record over and over again just because it makes them money.

When this entire scene that I’m a part of began to pop off in the early 2000s, it was because the music was different and progressive. It expanded and inspired many. Unfortunately, there came a point where it began to recycle itself and became stagnant, depending on the same ideas, styles, and concepts to stay successful, but not growing. That’s what I’m fighting against. I realize that everybody may not be with me on that, or even understand my desire to distance my music from what I consider to be formulaic and boring, but there’s no turning back for me. Continue reading →